Pissed off at silver but happy with brass.

I don't care how well off you are, we are all feeling it.

Who the hell do I write a scathing letter to, anyway?

Who decides what the price is? Is it the same people who decide the fuel?

Can we just agree to send a secret assassination team to do away with them and replace them with clones of Tim McCreight and who ever started Rio Grande? 

(I'm convinced these 2 people are looking out for my best interests)

Has anyone tried silver filled wires for soldering yet?

I miss working with the bright sparkle and the matte dark grey.

Now on to other more depressing news. 

Something has been wrong with the email account that the slevart.etsy.com jewelry store was connected to. I missed 2 sales and numerous convos because of this and still haven't figured it out. I do not receive notices and I am logged into missficklemedia all the time so I have no idea what is happening in the other store front unless I remember to check it but I can never remember to. 

 I think as soon as I can pay off my bill, I will just list a few jewelry pieces here on my blog. Just the most special that shouldn't be put away in bags or sold across a counter without an explanation. 

Pieces I need to talk about.  

When I saw copper in a stone for the first time, I was amazed at how natural it looked, almost like the stone itself. The layering effects of patinas on these simple hammered strips of brass give the same organic metal look as the copper embedded stone. The natural aging effect metal has in the ground changes the hues of the rock around it.

I love that.

Benthic Blue

The recipe;

1 cup of obsession for the sea

2 feet pure copper chain

1 cup of ocean blue patina

1 swipe of laurel green patina

1 pinch of gold dust

lots of of lacquer and wax

Paired with "Roman Glass" and antiqued sterling wire.

Oh. Yeah.

This piece went to Michelle Mach (her blog is a must read!) but I had to create more!
This was what motivated me to unpack the patina desk and get to work re-creating!

Benthic Blue Collection for You available here.

A Peek into the Printers Drawer!

Compartment No. 6

Driftwood!

Picked up from a vacation in Florida and treasured for the memories, the hope to go back and the possibilities they hold in creating.

I immediately made molds of them, as I do with just about everything, so I can always create clay items from them. I had the idea to press copper metal clay into them but that was before I learned I would need a kiln to fire them. So I created these out of polymer;

 They are painted and sealed but ended up looking more like stone than wood pieces! Not sure what I am going to do with these yet, I can't keep calling everything "Ancient" something or other.

I would like to use the original driftwood pieces in jewelry but I am worried about how delicate they are. Would they take a wire-wrapped bail rubbing against a hole drilled in the tops? Can I set a long eyelet in them to protect the wood from the metal wear?

It would be neat to create a bezel setting for them, then brush them with resin (good life long resin like ice resin) to preserve and protect. Maybe I will do that instead of drilling into them.

I always admired those bracelets and necklaces that had huge shells, stones and sea glass set in bezels.

What a way to carry the sea with you!

Now if only I can rearrange my time so I can sit down with this idea!

Oh, if you are like me and do not live near the ocean or any water for that matter, but would still like to utilize driftwood in your work here are a few links that sell really nice pieces;

Tideline Designs

Adrift Art Studio

A Peek into the Printers Drawer!

No. 5

Compartment No.5 contains African Bauxite, which I recently learned is not a clay as it feels like, but an aluminum ore. I love the way they look dug up from the earth and ancient from their uneven edges. I use them for spacers or to make a average bracelet look more unusual by including a particularly banged up looking one.

 The Fisherman

Here one broke up a line of turquoise heishi by being strung asymmetrically off to the side;

Jasper Blossom

Here is a strand from Coast Mountain Crafts. They are not as worn and aged as mine but they have a good color variation in them. I also found some here from ebay at half the price!

I have a friend who is traveling Africa right now as she puts together a book for World Watch Institute called The State of The World. She has researched how poverty stricken states in third world countries farm and feed themselves. She has very kindly sourced fair trade beads handmade by African hands and brought me strands and strands of them! Each strand is huge and multi-colored so I am doing a little research on the type of bead it is before sharing them. I have several ideas for jewelry projects that contain authentic African bead work. I know the market is not really big for that, most of us are still influenced by the whimsy that is holding strong in our how to magazines. But perhaps there is a way to combine the 2 influences and create something spectacular and new!
So come back and visit me for that, it is a side project to all the other stuff going on right now but my favorite part of designing! I hope to have something to show for my research within a few weeks, maybe 4 if I'm honest with myself.  

A Peek into the Printers Drawer!

 

Compartment

No.4

Carved wood. 

Another obsession of mine. I love it when it is imperfect and stained dark.

Like the carved wood flowers above from mintdetash that I purchased a loooong time ago and only now gave myself permission to use.

I am enjoying them paired with saffron yellow but I sent off the bracelet and necklace before I thought to take a picture!

I am searching for more and found these lovely carved wood beads;

from West Coast Beads.

I bet they could be stained.

Here are some rectangles I like also;

These can be purchased through Jewelry Beads and Findings.

And these little carved cubes from Fire Mountain Gems and Beads.

I'm kinda surprised I didn't find more. I searched "carved wood bead" and then "Indian carved wood bead" to find a more exotic carving but I didn't find much.

Ummmmmm, I wonder how hard it is to carve wood?

A Peek into the Printers Drawer

No. 3

Here is the 3rd compartment in my printers drawer!

Which is totally working by the way. I have these things out where I see them and it is motivating me to create with them. I even have this piece done but between the completion and now, there hasn't been a glimmer of sunlight to take a decent photo in.

The parts;

I received the repousse brass beads and inlaid wax set beads from Heritage Haven.

She is on vacation right now but here is another supplier;

Kate's Treasures.

I love Tibetan brass, it is amazing craftsmanship but it still  has a rustic not completely refined appearance.

I'd love some of these inlaid yak bone beads.

 But I haven't found any that are less then $75.

The patina-ted brass pieces are forged and treated with verdigris that has had a piece of copper developing in it for a day. This isn't a very scientific explanation, but something about coppers alloy changes the color of verdigris to this bright aqua color. 

 It's hard to recreate with consistent results which is why I do not always have verdigris available in this lovely color.

I thought of doing something like this;

 

 But I ended up with something totally different! I will take a picture as soon as I can.

I missed my last scheduled give-away (if anyone remembers, it should have been posted on the twelfth) so I am going to have a post tomorrow for a really neat toggle clasp I'd love for someone to use in one of their own designs.  

 

A Peek into the Printers Drawer

It's Monday!

Here is the first installment of a peek into my new printers drawer!

I found my printers drawer at an antique mall for $16. It was in great shape compared to the $10 drawer that had crud stuck to it and broken slats. I brought it home, cleaned out all the little compartments and sprayed it with a varnish to help it last a bit longer. I started cleaning off my bead counter to make room for it and began to fill the first compartments with patina-ted rings. But I stopped as soon as I saw that a lot of the dark components were not showing up against the dark wood. So I stood over it for 4 hours, cutting little rectangles of patterned papers to fit into the bottoms of the drawer.

Then and only then could I start to fill it with my treasures. 

Compartment No.1

The first compartment contains chain links I had to cut. At first you would think they are useless, because you can't re-solder once the patina has been lacquered but with a little wire and some time you can link them together  as a multicolored, textural chain segment!

See!?!?

To create your own wire-wrapped chain start by pressing your link seam closed as close as you can. Cut a 3" piece of wire, I chose sterling to add contrast, and place the middle of the wire to the side of the cut.  

Push the bottom part of the wire through the link and bring it up around the back to the top of the link. Press the wire in to hold it as you push the top wire over around the back and through the center of the link and up again.

Keep wrapping until the seam is completely enclosed in wire. If you want a messy wrap, cut a longer piece of wire. Use the fine tips of your chain nose pliers to position your wraps more closely together.

Chose your next link and close it over  the wrapped link.

Start wrapping this new link closed with another piece of wire and continue until you have the length of linked chain that you want or need. Now this doesn't have to be a stash of patina-ted chain, this can be done with any chain you have had to cut apart.  Some of them have a beautiful texture and you just can't throw them away! I strapped on some leather (heehee) and clasped it with a forged sterling clasp and another cut, patina-ted link.

Recycled Patina-ted Chain Segment.

Just think, this small handful made for 1 lovely necklace; think of all the necklaces, bracelets and even earrings I could do with the rest! But that will have to wait, I have a book review to do and another Missficklemedia Loves post to get ready.
Do you want a clue as to who it will be?
She is a season.